Bell v. Richards’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendants did not abandon their right to attorney fees by failing to mention the issue under “defendants’ contentions” on the pretrial order. The right is reciprocal. Presumably, since the plaintiffs mentioned the issue in the pretrial order, if they had been successful in the lawsuit, they would have been awarded attorney fees and costs. The plaintiffs had a contractual right to attorney fees, and pursuant to Section 28-3-704, MCA, so do the defendants. The District Court reasoned further that, since there was no evidence introduced at trial with respect to attorney fees, to award attorney fees after a judgment was announced would amount to an issue being raised post-trial. However, the issue of attorney fees is not outside the court’s record. The contract upon which the court relied in deciding the dispute is before the court as evidence. A provision of that contract clearly provides for attorney fees to the successful party in a lawsuit concerning the contract. Also, the issue of attorney fees was raised in two places on the pretrial order.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Naftco Leasing Ltd. Partnership 301 v. Finalco, Inc.

2. “Whenever, by virtue of the provisions of any contract... one party to such contract... has an express right to recover attorney fees from any other party to the contract... in the event the party having that right shall bring an action upon the contract... then in any action on such contract... all parties to the contract... shall be deemed to have the same right to recover attorney fees and the prevailing party in any such action, whether by virtue of the express contractual right or by virtue of this section, shall be entitled to recover his reasonable attorney fees from the losing party or parties.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Transaction Network, Inc. v. Wellington Technologies, Inc.

3. “When issues not raised by the pleadings are tried by express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings. Such amendment of the pleadings as may be necessary to cause them to conform to the evidence and to raise these issues may be made upon motion of any party at anytime, even after judgment.... [Emphasis added.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. PUBLIC LANDS ACCESS ASS'N, INC. v. Jones